Distant supernova remnant imaged by high resolution camera 1/09/1999
N132D is the remnant of an exploded star in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The Chandra image shows a highly structured remnant, or shell, of 10-million-degree gas that is 80 light years across. The remnant is thought to be about 3,000 years old.

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Image Credit: NASA, CXC, SAO.  

In the Chandra X-ray image of N132D made with the High Resolution Camera, the regions of brightest X-ray emission are shown in yellow. The N132D supernova remnant appears to be colliding with a giant molecular cloud, which produces the brightening on the southern rim of the remnant. The relatively weak x-radiation on the upper left shows that the shock wave is expanding into a less dense region on the edge of the molecular cloud. A number of small circular structures are visible in the central regions and a hint of a large circular loop can be seen in the upper part of the remnant. The expanding shock wave has swept up material equal to that of 600 suns. N132D in Context

N132D is similar in many ways to an older, much larger version of the Cas A supernova remnant. It has a complex shell-like structure that is caused by the expansion of a supersonic shock wave into surrounding material. Both remnants were probably produced by the explosion of a star that was 10 to 20 times more massive than the sun. The N132D remnant contains about 50 times more material than Cas A, and its X-ray power is about 10 times greater. The temperature of its hot gas is about 5 times lower, however. These differences are likely due to the older age of N132D and the fact that N132D is expanding into a more dense environment than Cas A.

 
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